Trump will not release tax returns, aide says, despite earlier promise to do so

President Donald Trump speaks at the White House Sunday in Washington.

By

HarrietTorry

A top spokeswoman to President Donald Trump repeated Sunday that he wouldn’t release his tax returns, saying that any pressure to do so was removed with his November election.

“The White House response is that he’s not going to release his tax returns; we litigated this all through the election, people didn’t care. They voted for him,” Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to Trump, said Sunday on ABC, in response to a question citing a petition posted to the White House website.

Barack Obama’s White House created the White House petition platform, and that administration said it would try to respond within 60 days to those petitions that garnered at least 100,000 signatures within 30 days. As of Sunday, the Trump tax return petition had gathered 212,360 signatures, according to the site. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in early January found 60% or respondents said Trump has a responsibility to release his tax returns, versus 33% who said that he didn’t.

Trump was the first presidential candidate from a major party since 1976 to release no tax returns. He said repeatedly during the campaign he would release them after what he and his lawyers said was a multiyear Internal Revenue Service audit. Tax returns are protected by federal privacy law, although the IRS has said he could release the returns, regardless of any audit.

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